MSQLDUMP(1)

🎀 NAME 🎀

msqldump (MSQLDUMP(1)) — dump a MonetDB/SQL database. This page lives in the General Commands Manual, and bestie, it’s giving “database dump but make it iconic” 💅✨

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

msqldump [ options ] [ dbname ]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

Okay so first: MonetDB is a database management system built from a main-memory perspective, using a fully decomposed storage model, automatic index management, extensibility of data types and search accelerators, and an SQL front end. Literally the whole package, no cap 💖

msqldump is the program that dumps a MonetDB/SQL database. That dump can be used to populate a new MonetDB/SQL database. So yes, it’s your little export bestie 💾✨

Before msqldump even starts parsing command line options, it reads a configuration file. Here’s the vibe check on which file it reads:

• If the environment variable DOTMONETDBFILE is set and not empty, it reads the file pointed to by that variable.
• If DOTMONETDBFILE is set but empty, no configuration file is read.
• If DOTMONETDBFILE is unset, msqldump first looks for a file .monetdb in the current working directory.
• If that doesn’t exist, it looks for a file monetdb in the XDG configuration directory ($XDG_CONFIG_HOME, which defaults to $HOME/.config if not set).
• And finally, it looks for a file .monetdb in the current user’s home directory.

This file can contain defaults for the flags user, password, host, and port. To disable reading the .monetdb file, set the variable DOTMONETDBFILE to the empty string in the environment. That’s the off switch, bestie 🫶

lowkey important: the config file reading happens before option parsing, so it’s not like a little side quest later. It’s first. periodt 💅

👑 OPTIONS 👑

• --help (-?) — print usage information and exit. Like, “what are my options?” but it’s literally this page, bestie 💅
• --database=database (-d database) — specify the name of the database to connect to. The -d can be omitted if it is the last option.
• --host=hostname (-h hostname) — specify the name of the host on which the server runs. Default: localhost 🌈
• --port=portnr (-p portnr) — specify the portnumber of the server. Default: 50000 🔥
• --user=user (-u user) — specify the user to connect as. If this flag is absent, the client will ask for a user name.
• --describe (-D) — only dump the database schema. Schema-only, cute and minimal 🎀
• --inserts (-N) — when dumping the table data, use INSERT INTO statements, rather than COPY INTO + CSV values. INSERT INTO statements are more portable, and necessary when the load of the dump is processed by e.g. a JDBC application. When the dump is to be used to feed back into MonetDB, COPY INTO is preferred since that is processed more efficiently. So portable vs. efficient, pick your main character 💫
• --noescape (-e) — when dumping the table data, use the NO ESCAPE option on the COPY INTO query.
• --functions (-f) — only dump function definitions.
• --table=[schema.]table (-t [schema.]table) — only dump the specified table. If schema is not specified, the user’s current schema is used. When either schema or table contains percent characters, all tables matching the (SQL) search pattern are dumped.
• --output=filename (-o filename) — write the dump to the specified file. If filename contains a recognized compression scheme suffix, the file will be compressed using that scheme.
• --outputdir=directory (-O directory) — write the dump to the file dump.sql in the specified directory, which is created if it does not exist. The data of the tables will be stored in separate CSV files in the directory. If the --compression option is used, the CSV files will be compressed using the specified compression scheme. If both the --outputdir option and the --output option are specified, the last one is used. The --outputdir option is not compatible with the --inserts option.

warning bestie: --outputdir and --inserts are not compatible. Do not try to make them happen 😭💀

• --compression=extension (-x extension) — compress the CSV files produced with the --outputdir option using the specified compression scheme. Depending on how the program is compiled, the following compression schemes are recognized: gz, bz2, xz, and lz4.
• --quiet (-q) — don’t print the welcome message. Silent mode, lowkey mysterious 🦋
• --Xdebug (-X) — trace network interaction between mclient and the server.

💜 SEE ALSO 💜

Go check out mclient(1) and mserver5(1) — that’s the whole SEE ALSO squad 🫶

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That’s the whole page, bestie 💌 source/version: MonetDB · manual page: MSQLDUMP(1) · date: not printed in the original footer, so I’m not inventing one 😌💅